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The next time winter rears its ugly head be ready with our fantastic Adult Snow Day game plan. Also this week we've got the story on "The Roommate" at Portland Stage, a Bar Guide review of Emilitsa, a Face the Music preview of a local Dolores O'Riordan tribute show, the debut of our new beer column Tap Lines, concert previews and so much more. Have at it!

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Shannon Bryan

Silhouetted visitors to the ever-growing Ice Castle at Loon Mountain in 2014. The ice castle has moved locations for 2015, but it’s still just as marvelous. Shannon Bryan photo

Most of us are accustomed to living in shared apartments or 700-square-foot condos – or maybe a small, affordable house with a sometimes-leaky roof and splendid built-in cabinetry.

We’ve never called a castle “home.” No, castles are for British royalty and Disney princesses, not the average New Englander who’d pay a fortune in heating oil just to keep a massive, drafty castle warm in the winter.

Still, it’s nice to have a castle to go to now and then, to hang out in and to live out our epic “lords of the land” fantasy, if only for an hour.

The Ice Castle at Hobo and Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroads in New Hampshire works for that. It was at Loon Mountain last year when we checked it out (the photos below are from our excursion last year), but organizers decided to move locations this year. That said, the awesomeness of the ice castle hasn’t changed. The structure is a marvel to look at, with its mounds of frozen water and dangling icicles. At night, LED lights change color, giving the castle a heavenly blue hue one minute and a underworld red the next.

Oh, and there’s an ice slide.

Shannon Bryan photo

The Ice Castle was created by Utah-based artist Brent Christensen using a latticework of structures and a sprinkler system. And it’s growing.